Michelle’s artistic journey started later in her life. As an English teacher, she taught her students to appreciate the artistry of the written word and encouraged them to combine writing with other artistic expressions, but she never saw herself as anything other than a writer and teacher. In 2013, she attended her very first wood-turning class and fell in love. She spent several more years developing her skills as a wood-turner while still teaching full-time. In 2022, Michelle realized that teaching no longer brought her joy, so she took a leap of faith and became a full-time wood-turner and artist.

Wood is a medium that allows Michelle to explore her artistic and creative nature with absolute freedom and joy. Wood retains its living nature and is constantly moving as it is being worked upon. Thus each piece that Michelle creates is a unique process of discovery and adventure and a single piece can take upwards of 30 hours to complete. Clients often comment that turning, hand-carving, burning, and dying each piece must be tedious but she finds the process to be meditative and calming instead. As she says, “It allows the squirrels who live in my brain to finally take a break”.

Michelle delights in the tactile nature of wood and encourages people to hold her work in their hands to fully experience each piece. She particularly enjoys creating illusions with wood and is thrilled when people do a double take as they realize that what they initially thought was a “woven basket” is actually created from a single piece of wood. Michelle looks to antique basketry around the world, nature, and personal life experiences to create her designs. She hopes that her work brings you as much pure joy as creating it has brought her.